Chapter XV: Part 15

No dispute, however, took place, and the bas-relief is now in the museum for which it was destined.

“Nearly two thousand years ago, these tombs were an object of wonder
and curiosity, and used to attract visiters from different parts of
the earth as they now do. It was the practice even then for many of
those who beheld them to leave some memorial of their visit behind,
in the shape of an inscription commemorating the date at which they
‘saw and wondered,’ to use the expression which is commonly found
among them. Some of these inscriptions are curious: one of them is to
the following effect: ‘_I, the Dadouchos (literally Torch-bearer), of
the most sacred Eleusinian mysteries, Nisagoras of Athens, having
seen these syringes (as the tombs were commonly called), a very long
time after the divine Plato of Athens, have wondered and given thanks
to the God and to the most pious King Constantine, who has procured
me this favour._’ The tomb in which this was written seems to have
been generally admired above all others, though, as Mr. Wilkinson
tells us, one morose old gentleman of the name of Epiphanius declares
that ‘he saw nothing to admire but the stone,’ meaning the alabaster
sarcophagus. There are many other inscriptions: some afford internal
evidence of their dates, and among them are four relating to the
years 103, 122, 147, and 189 of our era.

“A great many of the painted sculptures, which are found in these
tombs, relate to the idolatrous worship of the ancient Egyptians, and
the rites and ceremonies which they practised in connexion with
it[269]. But besides these, there are others which afford us a vast
quantity of interesting information upon the subjects of their
domestic usages and every-day life. In one chamber are depicted the
operations of preparing and dressing meat, boiling the cauldron,
making bread, lighting the fire, fetching water, &c. Another presents
scenes in a garden, where a boy is beaten for stealing fruit; a canal
and pleasure boats; fruit and flowers; the mechanical processes of
various arts, such as sculpture, painting, the mixing of colours, &c.
In the Harper’s Tomb, (so called from there being among the
bas-reliefs figures of a man playing upon an instrument resembling a
harp,) which was first visited by Bruce, there are some curious
illustrations of the furniture which was in use among the Egyptians;
tables, chairs, and sideboards, patterns of embossed silk and chintz,
drapery with folds and fringe are there to be seen, precisely such,
we are told, as were used in our own country some years ago when
Egyptian furniture was in fashion.

“The ‘Tombs of the Kings’ bring many allusions of Scripture to the
mind, as is remarked by Mr. Jowett, as in the passages of Mark v. 2,
3, 5, and particularly of Isaiah xxii. 16. ‘_What hast thou here, and
whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here,
as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an
habitation for himself on a rock?_’

“Another passage of the same prophet might be applied to the pride
which the tenants of these magnificent abodes took in resting as
magnificently in death as they had done in life; he tells us (xiv.
18), ‘_All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory,
every one in his own house._’

“The mystical sculptures upon the walls of the chambers within these
sepulchres, cannot be better described than in the words of Ezekiel,
(viii. 8, 10): ‘_Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the
wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold, a door; and he said
unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
So I went in, and saw; and, behold, every form of creeping things,
and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel,
pourtrayed upon the wall round about._’

“‘The Israelites,’ remarks Mr. Jowett, ‘were but copyists; the master
sketches are to be seen in all the ancient temples and tombs of
Egypt.’ These are the places in which the dead bodies of the
inhabitants of ancient Thebes were deposited many ages ago; and
notwithstanding the havoc which, during many years, has been made
among them, the stores of mummies which they contain would almost
appear to be inexhaustible; indeed, as a modern writer expresses it,
it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that the mountains are
merely roofs over the masses of mummies within them. The coffins,
which are made of sycamore-wood, serve as fuel to the Arabs of the
whole neighbourhood. ‘At first,’ says Mrs. Lushington, ‘I did not
relish the idea of my dinner being dressed with this resurrection
wood, particularly as two or three of the coffin lids, which were in
the shape of human figures, were usually to be seen standing upright
against the tree under which the cook was performing his operations,
staring with their large eyes as if in astonishment at the new world
upon which they had opened.’

“The miserable beings who have fixed their dwellings in these cavern
tombs, are as little civillized as could be expected; our female
traveller describes them as having a wild and resolute appearance.
‘Every man was at this time (1828) armed with a spear, to resist, it
was said, the compulsory levies of the Pacha, who found it vain to
attack them in their fastnesses. I, who was so delighted with the
beauty and peace of our new abode, felt quite disturbed to discover
that the very spot where we encamped four years before, witnessed the
massacre of many hundreds of Arabs, then in resistance against this
recruiting system, and who were blown from guns, or shot, while
endeavouring to make their escape by swimming across the river. The
poor people, however, behaved with civility to us, and I felt no
apprehension at going among them with a single companion, or even
alone. To be sure we were obliged to take especial care of our
property, for which purpose the chief of Luxor assisted us by
furnishing half-a-dozen men to watch by night round the encampment.
Nevertheless, once after I had gone to sleep, I was awakened by the
extinguishing of the light, and felt my little camp-bed raised up by
a man creeping underneath; he fled on my crying out, and escaped the
pursuit, as he had the vigilance, of our six protectors.’

“The feelings occasioned by the sight of the numerous fragments of
mummies which are to be found scattered in every direction in the
neighbourhood of these tombs, must be to one of a reflective cast of
mind peculiarly affecting. The Rev. Mr. Jowett, after speaking of his
ascent to the top of the Libyan mountains, ‘which command a
magnificent view of the winding of the Nile, and the plain of the
hundred-gated Thebes,’ says, ‘as we were descending the other side of
the mountain, we came suddenly on a part where thirty or forty
mummies lay scattered in the sand,—the trunk of the body filled with
pitch, and the limbs swathed in exceeding long clothes. The forty
days spent in embalming these mortal bodies, (Genesis 1. 3.) thus
give us a sight of some of our fellow-creatures who inhabited these
plains more than three thousand years ago. How solemn the reflection
that their disembodied spirits have been so long waiting to be united
again to their reanimated body! and that this very body which,
notwithstanding its artificial preservation, we see to be a body of
humiliation, will on its great change become incorruptible and
immortal.’”

The following observations are by Mr. Browne:—

“The massy and magnificent forms of the ruins that remain of ancient
Thebes, the capital of Egypt, the city of Jove, the city with a
hundred gates, must inspire every intelligent spectator with awe and
admiration. Diffused on both sides of the Nile, their extent confirms
the classical observations, and Homer’s animated description rushes
into the memory:—‘Egyptian Thebes, in whose palaces vast wealth is
stored; from each of whose hundred gates issue two hundred warriors,
with their horses and chariots.’ These venerable ruins, probably the
most ancient in the world, extend for about three leagues in length
along the Nile. East and west they reach to the mountains, a breadth
of about two leagues and a half. The river is here about three
hundred yards broad. The circumference of the ancient city must
therefore have been about twenty-seven miles. In sailing up the Nile,
the first village you come to within the precincts is _Kourna_, on
the west, where there are few houses, the people living mostly in the
caverns. Next is _Abu-Hadjadj_, a village, and _Karnak_, a small
district, both on the east. Far the largest portion of the city stood
on the eastern side of the river. On the south-west _Medinet-Abu_
marks the extremity of the ruins; for Arment, which is about two
leagues to the south, cannot be considered as a part.

“In describing the ruins, we shall begin with the most considerable,
which are on the east of the Nile. The chief is the Great Temple, an
oblong square building, of vast extent, with a double colonnade, one
at each extremity. The massy columns and walls are covered with
hieroglyphics, a labour truly stupendous. 1. The Great Temple stands
in the district called _Karnak_. 2. Next in importance is the temple
at _Abu-Hadjadj_. 3. Numerous ruins, avenues marked with remains of
sphinxes, &c. On the west side of the Nile appear, 1. Two colossal
figures, apparently of a man and woman, formed of a calcareous stone
like the rest of the ruins. 2. Remains of a large temple, with
caverns excavated in the rock. 3. The magnificent edifice styled the
_Palace of Memnon_. Some of the columns are about forty feet high,
and about nine and a half in diameter. The columns and walls are
covered with hieroglyphics. This stands at _Kourna_. 4. Behind the
palace is the passage styled Bibân-el-Molûk, leading up the mountain.
At the extremity of this passage, in the sides of the rock, are the
celebrated caverns known as the sepulchres of the ancient kings.
Several of these sepulchres have been described by Pococke, with
sufficient minuteness; he has even given plans of them. But in
conversation with persons at Assiût, and in other parts of Egypt, I
was always informed that they had not been discovered till within the
last thirty years, when a son of Shech Hamâm, a very powerful chief
of the Arabs, who governed all the south of Egypt from Achmîm to
Nubia, caused four of them to be opened, in expectation of finding
treasure.

“They had probably been rifled in very ancient times; but how the
memory of them should have been lost remains to be explained. One of
those which I visited exactly answers Dr. Pococke’s description; but
the other three appear materially different from any of his plans. It
is, therefore, possible that some of those which he saw have been
gradually closed up by the sand, and that the son of Hamâm had
discovered others. They are cut into the free-stone rock, in
appearance, upon one general plan, though differing in parts. First,
a passage of some length, then a chamber; a continuation of the first
passage turns abruptly to the right, where is the large sepulchral
chamber, with a sarcophagus of red granite in the midst.

“In the second part of the passage of the largest are several cells
or recesses on both sides. In these appear the chief paintings,
representing the mysteries, which, as well as the hieroglyphics
covering all the walls, are very fresh. I particularly observed the
two harpers described by Bruce; but his engraved figures seem to be
from memory. The French merchants at Kahira informed me that he
brought with him two Italian artists; one was Luigi Balugani, a
Bolognese, the other Zucci, a Florentine.”

The edifice at Luxor[270] was principally the work of two Egyptian
monarchs,—Amunoph the Third, who ascended the throne 1430 years
before the Christian era, and Rameses the Second—the Great, as he is
surnamed,—whose era has been fixed at 1500 or 1350 B. C. The
_Amenophium_, as the more ancient part erected by the former is
called, comprises all that extends from the river on the south up to
the great court; a colonnade, together with a propyla which bound it
on the north, is thus a portion of it. The great court itself, with
the propyla forming the grand entrance into the whole building, and
the obelisks, colossal statues, &c., was the work of Rameses the
Second, and is sometimes called the _Rameseium_; under this
appellation, however, it must not be confounded with the great
monument of the same monarch on the western side of the river. As
this great edifice is very near the bank of the river where it forms
an angle, the soil is supported by a solid stone wall, from which is
thrown out a jetty of massive and well-cemented brick, fifty yards in
length, and seven in width. Mr. Wilkinson says that it is of the late
era of the Ptolemies, or Cæsars, since blocks bearing the sculpture
of the former have been used in its construction; and the same
gentleman communicates the unpleasant intelligence that the river
having formed a recess behind it, threatens to sweep away the whole
of its solid masonry, and to undermine the foundations of the temple
itself. This jetty formed a small port, for the convenience of boats
navigating the river. Mr. Hamilton says that its ruins very much
resemble the fragments of the bridge called that of Caligula in the
Bay of Baiæ; which is now generally believed to have been a pier for
the purposes of trade. Dr. Richardson considered the workmanship of
the embankment to be entirely Roman; and he suggests that the temple
at Luxor was probably built on the banks of the Nile for the
convenience of sailors and wayfaring men; where, without much loss of
time they might stop, say their prayers, present their offerings, and
bribe the priests for promises of future success.

“The entrance,” says Denon, “of the village of Luxor affords a
striking instance of beggary and magnificence. What a gradation of
ages in Egypt is offered by this single scene! What grandeur and
simplicity in the bare inspection of this one mine! It appears to me
to be at the same time the most picturesque group, and the most
speaking representation of the history of those times. Never were my
eyes or my imagination so forcibly struck as by the sight of this
monument. I often came to meditate on this spot, to enjoy the past
and the present; to compare the successive generations of
inhabitants, by their respective works, which were before my eye, and
to store in my mind volumes of materials for future meditations. One
day the sheik of the village accosted me, and asked if it was the
French or the English who had erected these monuments, and this
question completed my reflections.”

Every spot of ground, intervening between the walls and columns, is laid out in plantations of corn and olives, inclosed by mud walls.

“We have little reason to suppose[271], that when Egypt formed a part
of the Eastern empire, its former capital was at all raised from its
fallen condition; and we have, unfortunately, but too much reason to
conclude, that under the dominion of the Arabian caliphs, it sank yet
deeper into desolation, and the destruction of its monuments was
continued still by the same agency which had all along worked their
ruin,—the hand of man. Though we have no distinct account of the
injuries inflicted on it in this period, we may infer their extent,
and the motives which operated to produce them, from the following
remarks of Abdallatif, an Arabian physician of Bagdad, who wrote a
description of Egypt in the fourteenth century. He tells us, that
formerly the sovereigns watched with care over the preservation of
the ancient monuments remaining in Egypt; ‘but, in our time,’ he
adds, ‘the bridle has been unloosed from men, and no one takes the
trouble to restrain their caprices, each being left to conduct
himself as to him should seem best. When they have perceived
monuments of colossal grandeur, the aspect of those monuments has
inspired them with terror; they have conceived foolish and false
ideas of the nature of these remains of antiquity. Every thing, which
had the appearance of design, has been in their eyes but a signal of
hidden treasure; they have not been able to see an aperture in a
mountain, without imagining it to be a road leading to some
repository of riches. A colossal statue has been to them but the
guardian of the wealth deposited at its feet, and the implacable
avenger of all attempts upon the security of his store. Accordingly,
they have had recourse to all sorts of artifice to destroy and pull
down these statues; they have mutilated the figures, as if they hoped
by such means to attain their object, and feared that a more open
attack would bring ruin upon themselves; they have made openings, and
dug holes in the stones, not doubting them to be so many strong
coffers filled with immense sums; and they have pierced deep, too, in
the clefts of mountains, like robbers penetrating into houses by
every way but the doors, and seizing eagerly any opportunity which
they think known only to themselves.’ This is the secret of much of
the devastation which has been worked among the monuments of ancient
Egypt.”

The village of Luxor[272] is built on the site of the ruins of a temple, not so large as that of Karnac, but in a better state of preservation, the masses not having as yet fallen through time, and by the pressure of their own weight. The most colossal parts consist of fourteen columns, of nearly eleven feet in diameter, and of two statues of granite at the outer gate, buried up to the middle of the arms, and having in front of them the two largest and best preserved obelisks known. They are rose-coloured, are still seventy feet above the ground, and to judge by the depth to which the figures seem to be covered, about thirty feet more may be reckoned to be concealed from the eye; making in all one hundred feet for their height. Their preservation is perfect; and the hieroglyphics with which they are covered being cut deep, and in relief at the bottom, show the bold hand of a master, and a beautiful finish. The gravers, which could touch such hard materials, must have been of an admirable temper; and the machines to drag such enormous blocks from the quarries, to transport them thither, and to set them upright, together with the time required for the labour, surpass all conception.

The temple is very near the river, says another writer, and there is a good ancient jetty, well built of bricks. The entrance is through a magnificent gateway facing the north, two hundred feet in front, and fifty-seven feet high, above the present level of the soil. Before the gateway, and between the obelisks, are two colossal statues of red granite; from the difference of the dresses, it is judged that one was a male, the other a female, figure. They are nearly of equal sizes. Though buried in the ground to the chest, they still measure twenty-one or twenty-two feet from thence to the top of the mitres.

The gateway is filled with remarkable sculptures, which represent the triumph of some ancient monarch of Egypt over an Asiatic enemy; and which we find repeated both on other monuments of Thebes, and partly, also, on some of the monuments of Nubia. This event appears to have formed an epoch in Egyptian history, and to have furnished materials both for the historian and the sculptor, like the war of Troy to the Grecian poet. The whole length of this temple is about eight hundred feet.

In speaking of the gate of this temple, which is now become that of the village of Luxor, Denon remarks:—“Nothing can be more grand, and, at the same time, more simple, than the small number of objects of which this entrance is composed. No city whatever makes so proud a display at its appearance as this wretched village; the population of which consists of two or three thousand souls, who have taken up their abode on the roofs and beneath the galleries of this temple, which has, nevertheless, the air of being in a manner uninhabited.”

The following observations, in regard to the sculptures at Luxor, are from the Saturday Magazine:—

“On the front of the great propyla, which form the principal entrance
at Luxor, are a series of sculptures which have excited the wonder of
all who have ever seen them. They are spoken of as being entitled to
rank very high among works of ancient art; as Mr. Hamilton remarks in
his admirable description of them, they far surpass all the ideas
which till they were examined had been formed of the state of the
arts in Egypt at the era to which they must be attributed. They are
cut in a peculiar kind of relief, and are apparently intended to
commemorate some victory gained by an ancient monarch of Egypt over a
foreign enemy. The moment of the battle chosen, is when the hostile
troops are driven back in their fortress, and the Egyptians are
evidently to be soon masters of the citadel.

“The conqueror, behind whom is borne aloft the royal standard, in the
shape of the Doum, or Theban palm-leaf, is of colossal size: that is,
far larger than all the other warriors, standing up in a car drawn by
two horses. His helmet is adorned with a globe with a serpent on each
side. He is in the act of shooting an arrow from a bow which is full
stretched; around him are quivers, and at his feet is a lion in the
act of rushing forward. There is a great deal of life and spirit in
the form and attitude of the horses, which are in full gallop,
feathers waving over their heads, and the reins lashed round the body
of the conqueror. Under the wheels of the car, and under the horses’
hoofs and bellies, are crowds of the slain; some stretched on the
ground, others falling. On the enemy’s side, horses in full speed
with empty cars,—others heedless of the rein, and all at last rushing
headlong down a precipice into a broad and deep river which washes
the walls of the town. The expression is exceedingly good; and
nowhere has the artist shown more skill than in two groups, in one of
which the horses having arrived at the edge of the precipice,
instantly fall down; and the driver clinging with one hand to the
car, the reins and whip falling from the other,—his body, trembling
with despair, is about to be hurled over the backs of the horses. In
the other, the horses still find a footing on the side of the hill,
and are hurrying forward their drivers to inevitable destruction;
these throw themselves back upon the car in vain. Some that are yet
unwounded pray for mercy on their knees, and others in their flight
cast behind a look of anxious entreaty; their limbs, their eyes, and
their hands, sufficiently declare their fears. The breathless horses
are admirable,—whether fainting from loss of blood, or rearing up and
plunging in the excess of torture. Immediately in front of the
conqueror are several cars in full speed for the walls of the town;
but even in these the charioteers and men-of-war are not safe from
the arrows shot from his unerring bow, and when wounded they look
back on their pursuer as they fall. Further on, more fortunate
fugitives are passing the river; in which are mingled horses,
chariots, arms, and men, expressed in the most faithful manner,
floating or sunk. Some have already reached the opposite bank where
their friends, who are drawn up in order of battle, but venture not
to go out to the fight, drag them to the shore. Others, having
escaped by another road, are entering the gates of the town amid the
shrieks and lamentation of those within. Towers, ramparts, and
battlements, are crowded with inhabitants, who are chiefly bearded
old men and women. A party of the former are seen sallying forth,
headed by a youth whose different dress, and high turban, mark him
out as some distinguished chieftain. On each side of the town are
large bodies of infantry, and a great force of chariots issuing out
of the gates, and advancing seemingly by different routes to attack
the besiegers.

“The impetuosity, with which the hero of the picture has moved, has
already carried him far beyond the main body of his own army, and he
is there alone amid the dying and the slain—victims of his valour and
prowess. Behind this scene, the two lines of the enemy join their
forces, and attack in a body the army of the invaders, which advances
to meet them in a regular line. ‘Besides the peculiarities of the
incidents recorded in this interesting piece of sculpture,’ says Mr.
Hamilton, ‘we evidently traced a distinction between the short
dresses of the Egyptians and the long robes of their Oriental
enemies; whether Indians, Persians, or Bactrians; the uncovered and
the covered heads; the different forms of the cars, of which the
Egyptian contains two, and the others three warriors; and above all,
the difference of the arms.’

“At one extremity of the west wing of the gateway, the beginning of
this engagement appears to be represented; the same monarch being
seen at the head of his troops, advancing against the double line of
the enemy, and first breaking their ranks. At the other extremity of
the same wing the conqueror is seated on his throne after the
victory, holding a sceptre in his left hand, and enjoying the cruel
spectacle of eleven of the principal chieftains among his captives
lashed together in a row, with a rope about their necks: the foremost
stretches out his arms for pity, and in vain implores a reprieve from
the fate of his companions: close to him is the twelfth, on his
knees, just going to be put to death by the hands of two
executioners. Above them is the captive sovereign, tied with his
hands behind him to a car, to which two horses are harnessed; these
are checked from rushing onward by the attendant, till the monarch
shall mount and drag behind him the unfortunate victim of his
triumphs. Behind the throne different captives are suffering death in
various ways; some held by the executioner by the hair of their head;
others dragged by chariots or slain by the arrow or the scimitar.
There is then the conqueror’s camp, round which are placed his
treasures, and where the servants prepare a feast to celebrate his
victory.

“We have described these sculptures at length, because they are
undoubtedly one of the greatest of the many wonders of Thebes, and
because in no other manner could we convey to our readers a proper
notion of their merits.”

The following observations are by Lord Lindsay:—

“We visited the Temples of Luxor and Carnac. The former is a most
magnificent pile, architecturally considered, but otherwise the least
interesting of the four great temples of Thebes. You originally
entered between four gigantic statues of Rameses the Great, and two
superb obelisks, of which one only remains;—the French have carried
off his brother, and every lover of antiquity must regret their
separation. The obelisks, statues, and pyramidal towers, were
additions by Rameses to the original edifice, founded by Amunoph the
Third. From the propyla and obelisks of this temple an avenue,
guarded by sphinxes, facing each other, extended northwards, to the
great temple of Jupiter Ammon at Carnac; meeting it at right angles,
the latter extending from west to east. The road we followed lay
nearer the river, and led us through a comparatively small temple of
Isis, that would have detained us longer in a less attractive
neighbourhood, into the great court of Jupiter Ammon’s temple, the
noblest ruin at Thebes. A stupendous colonnade, of which one pillar
only remains erect, once extended across this court, connecting the
western propylon or gate of entrance, built by Sesostris, with that
at its eastern extremity, leading to the grand hall of Osirei, and
the sanctuary. We ascended the former;—the avenue of sphinxes,
through which the god returned, in solemn procession, to his shrine
at Carnac, after his annual visit to the Libyan suburb, ascends to it
from the river,—the same avenue traversed age after age by the
conqueror, the poet, the historian, the lawgiver, the
philosopher,—Sesostris, Cambyses, Homer, Herodotus, Thales,
Anaxagoras, Solon, Pythagoras, Plato,—and now the melancholy song of
an Arab boy was the only sound that broke the silence; but that poor
boy was the representative of an older and a nobler race than that of
the Pharaohs. Long did we gaze on the scene around and below
us—utter, awful desolation! Truly, indeed, has NO been ‘rent
asunder!’ The towers of the second or eastern propylon are mere heaps
of stones, ‘poured down’—as prophecy and modern travellers describe
the foundations of Samaria—into the court on one side, and the great
hall on the other;—giant columns have been swept away like reeds
before the mighty avalanche, and one hardly misses them. And that
hall, who could describe it? Its dimensions, one hundred and seventy
feet by three hundred and twenty-nine,—the height of the central
avenue of columns sixty-six feet, exclusive of their pedestals,—the
total number of columns that supported its roof one hundred and
thirty-four. These particulars may give you some idea of its extent;
but of its grandeur and beauty—none. Every column is sculptured, and
all have been richly painted. The exterior walls, too, are a
sculptured history of the wars of Osirei and Rameses. Except those at
Beit Wellee I have seen nothing in Egypt that would interest so much.
In one corner, of especial interest, are represented the Jews
captured by Shishak, and their king Rehoboam, with the hieroglyphical
inscription ‘Jehouda Melek,’ the king of the Jews. This is the only
reference to the Israelites found in Egyptian sculpture. Many have
wondered at finding no allusions to their residence in Egypt; but I
think without cause; for, except the pyramids, the tombs in their
vicinity, those of Beni Hassan, and a few other remains, of but
little interest, I do not believe that any monuments exist, coeval
with Moses and the Exodus.”

The remains of this temple are thus described by Denon:—

“Of the hundred columns of the portico alone, the smallest are seven
feet and a half in diameter, and the largest twelve; the space
occupied by the circumvallation of the temple contains lakes and
mountains. In short, to be enabled to form a competent idea of so
much magnificence, the reader ought to fancy what is before him to be
a dream; as he who views the objects themselves rubs his eyes to know
whether he is awake. The avenue leading from Karnac to Luxor, a space
nearly half a league in extent, contains a constant succession of
sphinxes and other chimerical figures to the right and left, together
with fragments of stone walls, of small columns, and of statues.”

“The most ancient remains,” says Mr. Wilkinson, “now existing at Thebes, are unquestionably in the great temple of Karnac, the largest and most splendid ruin[273] of which, perhaps, either ancient or modern times can boast; being the work of a number of successive monarchs, each anxious to surpass his predecessor, by increasing the dimensions and proportions of the part he added.

“It is this fact which enables us to account for the diminutive size of the older parts of this extensive building; and their comparatively limited scale offering greater facility, as their vicinity to the sanctuary greater temptation, to an invading army to destroy them, added to their remote antiquity, are to be attributed their dilapidated state; as well as the total disappearance of the sculptures executed during the reigns of the Pharaohs, who preceded Osirtesen I., the cotemporary of Joseph, and the earliest monarch whose name exists on the monuments of Thebes[274].”

Speaking of this magnificent edifice, and of the vast sphinxes and other figures, Belzoni says:—“I had seen the temple of Tentyra, and I still acknowledge that nothing can exceed that edifice in point of preservation, and the beauty of its workmanship and sculpture. But here I was lost in a mass of colossal objects, every one of which was more than sufficient of itself to attract my whole attention. How can I describe my sensations at that moment? I seemed alone in the midst of all that is most sacred in the world; a forest of enormous columns from top to bottom; the graceful shape of the lotus, which forms their capitals, and is so well proportioned to the columns; the gates, the walls, the pedestals, the architraves, also adorned in every part with symbolical figures in low-relief, representing battles, processions, triumphs, feasts, and sacrifices, all relating to the ancient history of the country; the sanctuary wholly formed of fine red granite; the high portals, seen at a distance from the openings, of ruins of the other temples, within sight;—these altogether had such an effect upon my soul, as to separate me, in imagination, from the rest of mortals, exalt me on high above all, and cause me to forget entirely the trifles and follies of life. I was happy for a whole day, which escaped like a flash of lightning.”

Here stood, and does now stand, a fragment of the famous vocal statue of Memnon, which, many writers attest, sent forth harmonious sounds, when first touched of a morning by the rays of the sun. The circumstance being attested by Strabo, Pliny, Juvenal, Pausanias, Tacitus, and Philostratus, it is assuredly not to be doubted. The first injury this statue received was from Cambyses; who ordered it to be sawed in two, in order to get at the secret. It was afterwards thrown down by an earthquake.

Some have supposed, that the sounds alluded to were produced by the mechanical impulse of the sun’s light. Others that, being hollow, the air was driven out by the rarefaction of the morning, which occasioned the elicitation of a murmuring sound. But some assert, that it saluted the morning and evening sun differently;—the former with animating sounds; the latter with melancholy ones. Darwin, in the true spirit of poetry, describes this statue as sending forth murmurs of indignation at the ravages of Cambyses:—

Prophetic whispers breathed from sphinx’s tongue;
And Memnon’s lyre with hollow murmurs rung.

In another passage, equally poetical, he makes it view with delight the waters of the Nile, rushing from the cataracts of Ethiopia:—

Gigantic sphinx the circling waves admire;
And Memnon bending o’er his broken lyre.

In many parts of the East the custom still remains of proclaiming the sun by the sounding of instruments. That similar signals were given in Egypt is not to be doubted, since the custom is almost as old as solar adoration itself. That the sun was worshipped in that country, is equally established: both being rendered the more certain by the ceremony of sounding harps, at sunrise, having been introduced into Italy by Pythagoras, who had long sojourned with the Egyptian magi. The sounding of Memnon’s statue, then, might have been an artifice of the priesthood; to effect which many methods might have been adopted. Either the head of Memnon contained wires, like the strings of an Æolian harp; or the sounds might have been produced by the touching of a stone[275].

The real cause of the sound has lately been discovered by Mr. Wilkinson:—“In the lap of the statue is a stone, which, on being struck, elicits a metallic sound, that might still be made use of to deceive a visitor, who was predisposed to believe its powers; and from its position, and the squared space cut in the block behind, as if to admit a person, who might thus lie concealed from the most scrutinous observer in the plain below, it seems to have been used after the restoration of the statue; and another similar recess exists beneath the present site of the stone, which might have been intended for the same purpose, when the statue was in its mutilated state.”

This statue has frequently been mistaken for the statue of Osymandyas. Strabo says, that it was named Ismandes. These words were derived from Os-Smandi, to give out a sound; a property possessed, it was said, by this statue at the dawn of day and at sunset. Its true name was Amenophis. It was visited by Germanicus. On its legs are to be seen Greek and Roman inscriptions, attesting the prodigy of the harmonious sounds emitted by this colossus.

After the temples at Karnac and Luxor, the next grand building at Thebes was the Memnonium; that is, the tomb or palace of one of the Pharaohs, whom the Greeks suppose to be the same as Memnon. In the middle of the first court was the largest figure ever raised by the Egyptians,—the statue of the monarch, seventy-five feet high.

“The name MEMNONIUM[276] is used by Strabo to designate some part of
ancient Thebes lying on the western side of the river. Some modern
travellers have applied it to a mass of ruins at a little distance to
the north of Medeenet-Habou, which are by others identified with the
palace and tomb of Osymandyas, described by Diodorus. The dimensions
of the building are about five hundred and thirty feet in length, and
two hundred in width: it is chiefly remarkable for the magnificent
colossal statues which have been discovered within it. The ‘Memnon’s
head,’ which forms so valuable an object in the collection of
Egyptian antiquities contained in the British Museum, formerly
belonged to one of these statues. It is generally supposed that the
French, during their celebrated expedition, separated the bust from
the rest of the figure by the aid of gunpowder, with the view of
rendering its transport more easy. They were compelled, however, from
some cause or other, to leave it behind, and it was brought away by
Belzoni.

“Close to the spot where the Memnon’s head was found, lie the
fragments of another statue, which has been called the largest in
Egypt. It was placed in a sitting posture, and measures sixty-two or
sixty-three feet round the shoulders; six feet ten inches over the
foot. The length of the nail of the second toe is about one foot, and
the length of the toe to the insertion of the nail is one foot eleven
inches. This enormous statue, formed of red granite, has been broken
off at the waist, and the upper part is now laid prostrate on the
back: the face is entirely obliterated, and next to the wonder
excited at the boldness of the sculptor who made it, as Mr. Hamilton
remarks, and the extraordinary powers of those who erected it, the
labour and exertions that must have been used for its destruction are
most astonishing.

“The mutilation of this statue must have been a work of extreme
difficulty: Hamilton says that it could only have been brought about
with the help of military engines, and must then have been the work
of a length of time; in its fall it has carried along with it the
whole of the wall of the temple which stood within its reach.

“We have remarked that this edifice, called the Memnonium, is by many
travellers identified with that described by Diodorus, under the name
of the monument of Osymandyas; his description is the only detailed
account which we have in the ancient writers of any great Egyptian
building. There is no one now at Thebes to which it may be applied in
all its parts, or with which it so far agrees, as to leave no doubt
concerning the edifice to which it was intended to apply by its
author; and Mr. Hamilton expresses his decided opinion that Diodorus,
in penning this description of the tomb of Osymandyas, either
listened with too easy credulity to the fanciful relations of the
Greek travellers, to whom he refers; or that, astonished with the
immensity of the monuments he must have read and heard of as
contained within the walls of the capital of Egypt, and equally
unwilling to enter into a minute detail of them all, as to omit all
mention of them whatever, he set himself down to compose an imaginary
building, to which he could give a popular name. In this he might
collect, in some kind of order, all the most remarkable features of
Theban monuments, statues, columns, obelisks, sculptures, &c. to form
one entire whole that might astonish his reader without tiring him
by prolixity or repetition, and which at the same time gave him a
just notion of the magnificent and splendid works which had
immortalised the monarchs of the Thebaid. It is evident that there is
no one monument in Thebes which answers in all its parts to the
description of Diodorus; yet it is urged that there is scarcely any
one circumstance that he mentions that may not be referred to one or
other of the temples of Luxor, Karnak, Goorno, Medeenet-Habou, or the
tombs of the kings among the mountains. Others think that Diodorus
used his best endeavours to describe a real place; and the chief
agreements with that now called the Memnonium are in the position of
the building and its colossal statues, which are supposed to outweigh
the exaggerations of dimension; these being set down as faults of
memory or observation. On the colossal statue mentioned by Diodorus
as the largest in Egypt, was placed, as he tells us, this
inscription:—‘_I am Osymandyas, king of kings: if you wish to know
how great I am, and where I lie, surpass my works!_’ He speaks also
of certain sculptures representing battle scenes; and of the famous
sacred library, which was inscribed with the words, ‘_Place of cure
for the soul!_’ Yet from this conclusion we learn that he has been
describing what the tomb of Osymandyas _was_, ‘which not only in the
expense of the structure, but also in the skill of the workmanship,
must have surpassed by far all other buildings.’”

The following observations and history are taken from an exceedingly learned and agreeable work, “Egyptian Antiquities:”

“Those who visit the British Museum cannot fail to have observed, in
the room of Egyptian antiquities, a colossal statue of which only the
head and breast remain. It is numbered 66 in the catalogue and on the
stone. Though this statue is commonly called the ‘Younger Memnon,’ a
name to which for convenience we shall adhere, there is no reason in
the world for calling it so, but a mistake of Norden, a Danish
traveller, who visited Egypt in 1737. He then saw this statue in its
entire state, seated on a chair, in precisely the same attitude as
the black breccia figure, No. 38, but lying with its face on the
ground; to which accident, indeed, the preservation of the features
is no doubt mainly due. Several ancient writers, and among them the
Greek geographer Strabo, speak of a large temple at Thebes on the
west side of the Nile, to which they gave the name of the Memnonium,
or Memnon’s temple. Norden fancied that the building, amidst whose
ruins he saw this statue, was the ancient Memnonium: though he
supposed, that another statue of much larger dimensions than this in
the Museum, and now lying in numerous fragments in the same place,
was the great Memnon statue, of which some ancient writers relate the
following fact:—That at sunrise, when the rays first struck the
statue, it sent forth a sound something like that of the snapping of
the string of a lute.

“It is now generally admitted, that the real statue of Memnon is
neither the large one still lying at Thebes in fragments, nor this
statue in the Museum, which came out of the same temple—but another
statue still seated in its original position on the plain of Thebes,
and showing by numerous Greek and Latin inscriptions on the legs,
that _it_ was the statue of which Strabo, Pausanias, and other
ancient writers speak. The entire black statue, No. 38, is also _a_
Memnon statue, for it resembles in all respects the great colossus
with the inscriptions on its legs, and it has also the name of Memnon
written on it, and enclosed in an oblong ring, on each side of the
front part of the seat, and also on the back. If this colossus in the
Museum (No. 66) was entire in 1737, it may be asked how came it to be
broken? We cannot say further than the following statement:—Belzoni
went to Egypt in 1815, intending to propose to the Pasha some
improved mechanical contrivances for raising water from the river in
order to irrigate the fields. Owing to various obstacles, this scheme
did not succeed, and Belzoni determined to pay a visit to Upper Egypt
to see the wonderful remains of its temples. Mr. Salt, then British
Consul in Egypt, and Lewis Burckhardt, commissioned Belzoni to bring
this colossal head from Thebes. Belzoni went up the river, and,
landing at Thebes, found the statue exactly in the place where the
Consul’s instructions described it to be.[277] It was lying ‘near the
remains of its body and chair, with its face upwards, and apparently
smiling on me at the thought of being taken to England. I must say,
that my expectations were exceeded by its beauty, but not by its
size. I observed that it must have been absolutely the same statue as
is mentioned by Norden, lying in his time with the face downwards,
which must have been the cause of its preservation. I will not
venture to assert who separated the bust from the rest of the body by
an explosion, or by whom the bust has been turned face upwards.’ It
will be observed that the left shoulder of this figure is shattered,
and that there is a large hole drilled in the right shoulder. We
believe both are the work of the French who visited Thebes during the
occupation of Egypt by the French army in 1800; and there is no doubt
that Belzoni, in the above extract, means to attribute to them the
separation of the head and shoulders from the rest of the body. In
the magnificent work on Egyptian Antiquities, which has been
published at Paris, there is a drawing of this head, which is pretty
correct, except that the hole and the whole _right_ shoulder are
wanting. It seems that they drew the colossal bust in that form which
it would have assumed, had they blown off the right shoulder. From
what cause it happened we do not know, but they left the colossus
behind them; and Belzoni, alone and unaided, accomplished what the
French had unsuccessfully attempted.

“All the implements that Belzoni had for removing this colossus were
fourteen poles, eight of which were employed in making a car for the
colossus, four ropes of palm-leaves, four rollers, and no tackle of
any description. With these sorry implements and such wretched
workmen as the place could produce, he contrived to move the colossus
from the ruins where it lay to the banks of the Nile, a distance
considerably more than a mile. But it was a no less difficult task to
place the colossus on board a boat, the bank of the river being ‘more
than fifteen feet above the level of the water, which had retired at
least a hundred yards from it.’ This, however, was effected by making
a sloping causeway, along which the heavy mass descended slowly till
it came to the lower part, where, by means of four poles, a kind of
bridge was made, having one end resting on the centre parts of the
boat, and the other on the inclined plane. Thus the colossus was
moved into the boat without any danger of tilting it over by pressing
too much on one side. From Thebes it was carried down the river to
Rosetta, and thence to Alexandria, a distance of more than four
hundred miles: from the latter place it was embarked for England.

“The material of this colossus is a fine-grained granite, which is
found in the quarries near the southern boundary of Egypt, from which
masses of enormous size may be procured free from any split or
fracture. These quarries supplied the Egyptians with the principal
materials for their colossal statues and obelisks, some of which, in
an unfinished form, may still be seen in the granite quarries of
Assouan. There is considerable variety in the qualities of this
granite, as we may see from the specimens in the Museum, some of
which consist of much larger component parts than others, and in
different proportions; yet all of them admit a fine polish. The
colossal head, No. 8, opposite to the Memnon, No. 2, commonly called
an altar, will serve to explain our meaning.

“This Memnon’s bust consists of one piece of stone, of two different
colours, of which the sculptor has judiciously applied the red part
to form the face. Though there is a style of sculpture which we may
properly call Egyptian, as distinguished from and inferior to the
Greek, and though this statue clearly belongs to the Egyptian style,
it surpasses as a work of art most other statues from that country by
a peculiar sweetness of expression and a finer outline of face.
Though the eyebrows are hardly prominent enough for our taste, the
nose somewhat too rounded, and the lips rather thick, it is
impossible to deny that there is great beauty stamped on the
countenance. Its profile, when viewed from various points, will
probably show some new beauties to those only accustomed to look at
it in front. The position of the ear in all Egyptian statues that we
have had an opportunity of observing is very peculiar, being always
too high; and the ear itself is rather large. We might almost infer,
that there was some national peculiarity in this member, from seeing
it so invariably placed in the same singular position. The appendage
to the chin is common in Egyptian colossal statues, and is
undoubtedly intended to mark the beard, the symbol of manhood; and it
may be observed not only on numerous statues, but also on painted
reliefs, where we frequently see it projecting from the end of the
chin and not attached to the breast, but slightly curved upwards.
Osiris, one of the great objects of Egyptian adoration, is often thus
represented; but the beard is generally only attached to the
_clothed_ figure, being, for the most part, but not always, omitted
on naked ones. The colossal figures, No. 8 and 38, have both lost
their beards. There is a colossal head in the Museum, No. 57, that is
peculiar in having the upper margin of the beard represented by
incisions on the chin, after the fashion of Greek bearded statues. It
is the only instance we have seen, either in reality or in any
drawing, of a colossus with a genuine beard. There is more variety in
the head-dresses of colossal statues than in their beards. No. 8,
opposite the Memnon, has the high cap which occurs very often on
Egyptian _standing_ colossi, which are placed with their backs to
pilasters. No. 38 has the flat cap fitting close to the head and
descending behind, very much like the pigtails once in fashion. The
Memnon head-dress differs from both of these, and has given rise to
discussions, called learned, into which we cannot enter here. On the
forehead of this colossus may be seen the remains of the erect
serpent, the emblem of royalty, which always indicates a deity or a
royal personage. This erect serpent may be traced on various
monuments of the Museum, and perhaps occurs more frequently than any
single sculptured object.

“Our limits prevent us from going into other details, but we have
perhaps said enough to induce some of our readers to look more
carefully at this curious specimen of Egyptian art; and to examine
the rest of the ornamental parts. The following are some of the
principal dimensions:—

The whole height of the bust from the top of the
head-dress to the lowest part of the fragment ft. in.
measured behind 8 9

Round the shoulders and breast, above 15 3

Height of the head from the upper part of the
head-dress to the end of the beard 6 0-1/2

From the forehead to the chin 3 3-1/2

“Judging from these dimensions, the figure in its entire
state would be about twenty-four feet high as seated on its
chair: which is about half the height of the _real_ Memnon,
who still sits majestic on his ancient throne, and throws his
long shadow at sunrise over the plain of Thebes.”

Many pages have been written in regard to the time when the arch was first invented. It is not known that the two divisions of the city were ever connected by any bridge.